A car door slammed. I quickly bent at the waist over the tub. I spread my legs a bit wider than necessary and began to rub my hair dry. And I wondered...if he would open the door. I didn't have to wonder long. I felt the draft as the door swung open and I took my sweet time before looking over my shoulder at my father standing in the doorway. Again, I let him look as long as he liked. And he liked a long time. When he finally met my eyes, he held my gaze for a few seconds. "You gonna be long?" he. Dixon talked to Cal about his breach of our agreement.”“How’d that go?” I asked.“They worked out a deal where the consent decree would be modified to allow Cal supervised visitation only with prior written permission from your mom or me,” Dad explained.“That makes me feel better.”“You’re not going to like the final part of the deal,” Dad said with a smirk.This didn’t sound good.“You have to call Ms. Dixon and let her yell at you.”I blanched at that.“Why?” I asked.“The way she explained it to me. " Live with me a while and if love doesn't come through, I'll get you another apartment." The poor child just learned how painful it is to be a woman these days. I waxed off her pubic hair so that she could wear her swimsuit like we do in the U.S. without curly hair hanging out. She hates me. It won't feel good for a couple of days." She reached over to pull the alarm button. I heard her giggle, "How do you like being daddy again?" She pushed her butt into my spoon."Rachel, when those little. It was not the pain, almost unendurable though it still was, that caused this sign of emotion, but shame. The warm-hearted sympathy that this girl had just expressed served to remind her of all the unkind things she had said about her in the past and about so many other of the village girls. At this moment there was nothing she wanted more than to have them accept her as a friend. She had witnessed, with amazed and growing admiration, their stoicism as they had descended time and again into the.